1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to software configuration management (SCM) systems. More specifically, an embodiment of the present invention is directed to synchronizing codes from multiple SCM systems.
2. Related Art
Multiple site development organizations often face the difficult issue of integrating or synchronizing source code from different SCM systems (e.g., ClearCase, CVS, SourceSafe, etc.) into a centralized code. ClearCase is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. SourceSafe is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. A myriad of reasons create this difficulty, including software/IT departments merge as corporate mergers and acquisitions take place, wherein software source code needs to be integrated into a single SCM system. Often smaller development teams are spread across a multi-global site, wherein each development team makes use of its own SCM systems. As the software grows, there is a need to merge code from the different SCM systems into one SCM system. Also exacerbating the development of software is the incompatibility of newer versions with older versions of SCM systems. The use of migration paths from older versions of SCM systems to newer versions can be risky and takes too long to perform during the development cycle.
Most SCM systems are required to check in the entire development code to support concurrent development activities. Hence, if the source code exists in foreign SCM systems, it is quite difficult to maintain concurrent development. Accordingly, there is a need to solve this problem by seamlessly synchronizing, integrating, and/or merging code from foreign SCM systems into the central SCM system so as to support concurrent development in multi-SCM system environments.